It is OK to learn the terminology and get some references, but it does not go beyond a general "beware, everything affects everything, lack of proper planning may result in project failure". Quizzes focus on details of the author's definitions of SE concepts; assignments revolve around a dwelling and are too simplistic to be of interest (except for a study case on a real building and a task on requirement templates that forces you to review some standards); grading is poorly conceived (4 vague questions, and you need 80% to pass, which means 4/4, and peer reviewers don't seem to realize it, which leads to tedious resubmissions). I needed to quickly ramp up on SE for professional needs, so it was not a total waste of time, but I believe that the authors, who you can feel are subject experts, could have put together something much more enriching and effective. Not to mention the permanent sponsored content on their book and MSc program...once is nice, twice is acceptable, more is spam.

Frequent and forced peer reviews with no opportunity to complete once deadline is missed makes this course nu-necessarily difficult for people with conflicting schedules and responsibilities.

very broad, not deep. not deep enough for engineers with a little work experience.

ideal for undergrad. students. negative: does not introduce typical system modeling languages used by the industry (UML, SysML).

I have completed three weeks of this course thus far, and I have highly enjoyed every lecture and every exercise. The quizzes really help to confirm my understanding, and the exercises encourage me to think outside the box and to think carefully. Dr. Mike Ryan's lectures have proven themselves to be engaging, thoughtful, and overall exceptional.

If systems engineering is an area that I would try to pursue in my career, I will definitely place UNSW as a top choice to get my Master's in Systems Engineering. Since I do not live in Australia, I'm not quite sure how that would work out, but overall I have very been impressed by the quality of education and content provided in these videos.

Week 8 Edit: While I really like the exercises, I don't like the idea of requiring two peer reviews. This makes it difficult for students to have their assignments get graded or conversely grade other students' assignments if there are not enough students taking the course and are on the same module. As an aside, I really like Dr. Ian Faulconbridge's lectures and his personal anecdotes from his experience in the industry.

Overall, a pretty good intro to systems engineering. The first 4 weeks are very definition and acronym dense. Weeks 5-8 go more into the topic of system life cycle phases and I personally found this more useful. This course unfortunately doesn't teach any practical tools like SysML or UML, but learning the foundations in this course would make it a lot easier to approach those.

The peer review system is not great however. On almost every week, you need to submit a peer review assignment and review two other students. The assignments themselves are fine, but the active population of students (especially in the later weeks) is fairly low. Therefore, it's within your best interests to submit very far ahead of the deadline, so your assignment will be reviewed by the deadline. The grading criteria for the reviews are not great either. If you miss one criteria (out of four), you essentially fail the assignment.

The course itself is fine. The instructors are good. But the design of the peer-reviewed rating system and the course moderator's inability to correct erroneous reviews significantly weakens this course's attractiveness. A MOOC is fine, but should be set up so that one individual is not allowed to disrupt progress. In my case, the other reviewer gave me 100%. The errant reviewer in question indicated I did not answer the question by attaching a document. I had, in fact, answered the question in-line. Because of this reviewer's score of zero, my other reviewer's score of 4/4 was lowered to 2/4. At minimum, an error check comparing one against the other would have caught this. Bad engineering on a course all about systems engineering,

The first week assignment is pathetic. It's all about memorizing the terminology that was introduced in a couple of words in the videos, which looks arbitrary. No readable material is provides in the course.

I'm dropping out.

I wish I had studied Systems Engineering many years ago, particularly with such a great introduction as in this course. I feel confident to advance in this field with this broad overview, just deep enough to guide me on what to look for next. The instructors take it very seriously (with a bit of humour here and there), and transmit the confidence and experience they have to us. I strongly recommend this course not only to aspiring Systems Engineers, but to Project/Product/Software Managers, Agile Coaches, Logistics Specialists, and definitely to Business Owner and Entrepreneurs. Thanks a lot, Prof. Ryan and Prof. Faulconbridge!

This course gives a lot of insights into the SE activities, which we normally don't notice. This would be useful for the system developers as well System Safety engineers to appreciate the system

This course, on top of relevant work experience, helped me get a systems engineering job. It is an excellent introduction and has many relevant use cases for different systems engineering tools.

Overall it is a good course for beginners as well as experts. The structure and flow of the course can be improved as the organization of the course is haphazard and not incremental in terms of learning. The quizzes set were very good but some terms and abbreviations used in the quiz were not discussed in the course or differently discussed. It would be helpful to provide cheat sheets along with notes to outline the modules and important terms. The example of the house was a good example. Additional project options can be added so that the students can undertake a small system engineering project within their field.

Overall, the content was structural and comprehensive enough for a broad Systems Engineering course overview. However, the delivery of the information was a bit regimented and uninspiring. Would have been nice to have added reading material available online rather than through a textbook as I am located in a country that does not have access to these books easily. Thanks!

Excellent course! The content is great in quality, quantity and structure!! 5 stars to that! However, I am giving 4 stars since passing the course or not depends mostly on Extension Exercises, which at the beginning seem to be optional but they in fact mandatory.

Overall it is a good overview of SE / intro to the topic for people. But peer review is convenient for the instructors for sure. But when someone grading the exercise doesn’t understand it themselves it provides no benefit for the student being graded. If something is deemed to not meet course requirements for the exercises detailed comments should be mandated.

If a student has a discrepancy vs the grader it should be able to be flagged to the instructors / moderators.

Thank You for the Introduction to Systems Engineering Course Dear Coursera Team and Instructors, I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for the exceptional learning experience provided by the "Introduction to Systems Engineering" course on Coursera. This course has been a valuable and enriching journey, and I am sincerely thankful for the opportunity to participate. The knowledge I gained during this course has been transformative. From understanding the fundamental principles of systems engineering to applying them in practical scenarios, the content was not only informative but also engaging. The clarity of the lectures and the expertise of the instructors made complex concepts accessible and enjoyable to learn. What made this course truly outstanding was the sense of community and support it fostered. The discussion forums and peer interactions allowed for meaningful exchanges of ideas and experiences. I appreciated how the instructors actively engaged with students, clarifying doubts and encouraging critical thinking. Furthermore, the flexibility to access this course for free has been a tremendous gift. It has allowed me to enhance my skills and knowledge in systems engineering, which I might not have had the opportunity to do otherwise. Coursera's commitment to providing accessible education is commendable, and I am grateful for being a beneficiary of this mission. As I complete this course, I am leaving with not only a certificate but also a sense of accomplishment and confidence in my understanding of systems engineering. This knowledge will undoubtedly have a positive impact on my professional journey and personal growth. Once again, thank you to the entire Coursera team and the dedicated instructors for making this course available. I look forward to exploring more educational opportunities on Coursera and continuing my lifelong learning journey. With warm regards, K A M T Kodikara

It is not easy to teach a methodology, knowing that the students come from very different backgrounds and system domains. The instructors were able to teach the concepts with the right pace and to provide examples which were easy to follow. In my opinion, a key success criterion for the course is the chosen running example: a dwelling. Every student, independent from background and system domain, can relate to it and apply the methodology. Because of the dwelling example, students could review the work of other students and don't get confused by a system domain they don't understand. It is worthwhile to mention that the course material is based on ISO 15288 and ISO 29148. I can highly recommend the course as an introduction to Systems Engineering.

Its a good brief course of Systems Engineering. Covers about 90% of the material I learned from the Systems Engineering course I took in university. I will say the time I put into each week except the 8th and 9th was more than the estimated 3 hours per week, 9 hours on average, taking notes and trying to grasp it all. Even though it's a brief review of Systems Engineering, it's still alot of information to absorb. The 1st 3 weeks are going to be most information-heavy (don't take it all in one day), it's not the fault of the course, its because of System Engineering; there is alot of planning ahead. Overall its what you make of it, I'm more confident of my grasp of Systems Engineering, but there are bits I forget, so got to keep learning.

The course is impressive, very valuable , I never ever gone through similar course, indeed, the content is comprehensively covers IE and Systems, supported with further reading and references.

The course deserve couple of months spent grasping the material, moreover the submitted assignments exposed me to different knowledge areas : concepts of process, lifecycle of system of service/products (business cycles) , conceptual to retirement of system has really enhanced my skills very much.

PDF course attachments helped me a lot to improve and guided me to read more and search.

Thank you

Mobasher Alasmari

K.S.A -Jeddah City

student

The course outline is very good, however the presentation (especially the slides) can be monotonous. The usage of various system engineering terminologies and jargon can be intimidating at times. Appreciate the instructors intention of keeping the videos and material very digestible on a weekly basis, I would suggest them to include more case studies and activities, from the professional realm as well. I would also suggest them to bring in the awareness of various tools that are used throughout the systems engineering process. It is still an excellent course and would highly recommend to any engineer out there.

Hands down the best course you could ever wish for in the field of systems engineering. Dr. Mike Ryan & Dr. Ian Faulconbridge make even the toughest topics look so simple and it gives a clear idea about approaching a problem. The best thing about this course is that of its exercises and helping us understand the way in which all of the topics are to be applied in a real-life scenario.

Dr. Mike Ryan & Dr. Ian Faulconbridge, I thank you immensely for making this MOOC and helping many students like myself with this informative and knowledgeable course.